This Is The Time of Us
by NativeAmericanChika-do
Summary: Sakura is off to university to have the time of her life with her friends from Konoha! But will a mysterious gang of new friends ruin the bonds of old friendships? And does Sakura really even care? Come along with the Akatsuki as Sakura learns to live life to the fullest and forget about what others think of her. SAKURA CRACK WITH MAJORITY OF AKATSUKI MEMBERS.
1. The Beginning of Something Amazing

**A/N: Hello my darlings! Welcome to the first chapter of my Naruto fanfic, ****This is the Time of Us****. This is basically a Sakura X Akatsuki, but the Sakura pairings are: Deidara, Sasori, Itachi, Hidan Sasuke and random surprise ones. Lots of crack, I know! EXCITING! **

**This isn't my first fanfic, but I've deleted my other account soooo… :)**

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing but a panda pillow pet and the idea to this fanfic, all characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of Naruto. **

**Chapter One**

**The Beginning of Something Amazing**

Sakura looked out the window of her best-friend's bright purple bug, the city was so gorgeous. She loved the buildings, how they towered over her. And the amount of people on the streets, it was still early morning! Sakura had always lived the small village of Konoha, but now she was in the big city with her best friends, ready for the world.

As the music went from normal to blasting Sakura turned at look at her friend, Ino Yakamata. Ino was in a denim mini skirt and a purple halter top with black strappy wedge heels and metallic black hoop earrings. Her hair in her signature high pony tail with her long bangs hanging out, Ino looked like a supermodel, as always.

Ino grinned at Sakura as she turned the volume knob, and began to sing along to the song which was definitely in the Top 40. Ino was always a pop princess.

Sakura laughed and sang along, only knowing the chorus, but letting Ino belt out the rest.

As Ino swerved through the traffic, she spotted Naruto, Kiba and Shikamaru in Kiba's truck. Speeding up a little, she got in front of the truck with the four squished boys and rolled down the window. Spitting her gum out, Ino let her hand out the window letting it fly right onto their windshield. Ino laughed out loud at their silly faces and gave them the peace sign before putting her hand back in.

Sakura laughed along, looking around she saw Neji and Rock Lee in Neji's truck and Tenten's Chevy Malibu 1970, where she and Hinata rode.

She couldn't help but grin, all of them heading off to college. She couldn't believe that all of them were accepted, this beings almost everyone's choice college.

Sakura smacked Ino's shoulder in excitement, "Look it's the campus!"

Ino grinned excitedly and went to turn off and head to the University. The three other cars followed.

Driving into the parking lot the four cars parked next to each other in the early morning vacant area.

Sakura and Ino hopped out squealing as Tenten and Hinata pulled next to them with a squealing Tenten with Hinata surprisingly squealing too.

Naruto parked next to Ino's bug and stood up on his seat leaning out on the door and screamed along with the girls. Kiba howled along with him and hit the dashboard like drums while Shikamaru sat in the passenger's seat, sleep mask on and iPod ear buds in.

Neji pulled up beside them too, he was, shockingly, really excited also.

So there the friends sat, in the middle of a vacant parking lot screaming and howling and squealing for joy. They were finally here, after a two day road trip, the University of Fire.

With Tenten's radio blasting, they all danced to Ino's preference (Popish Mainstream songs) while taking out their luggage from the backs of the cars and the backs of the boy's trucks.

Walking across the parking lot there was a college student wandering over to the library building. Sakura called after the girl, thinking she might be a upperclassmen knowing where the dormitories were. The girl turned her head to them and walked over.

The girl was tall with a voluptuous figure and had beautiful blue locks pulled up into a side bun with exotic looking chop sticks. She wore a navy blue tube top with sleek black legging and black combat boots up to her knees with a cute black trench coat keeping her warm in the early morning cold. She had a gorgeous face with high cheekbones and eyes that were from another world. She had her ears pierced three times and a chin piercing.

Sakura smiled, "Hi, I'm Sakura Haruno. We were wondering if you knew where the different dormitories are."

Konan's brightly red colored lips turned up in a smile, "My name is Konan, I'm in my last year here. Let me see your map."

Neji handed her a map while Tenten turned down the music sheepishly somehow knowing the girl wasn't a big fan of Katy Perry.

Konan circled each dorm and wrote the letter of it. "We're here in the North parking lot. The big dormitories are designated by North, South, East and West. The little dormitories are randomly placed everywhere else. The biggest ones are A through D. The rest are smaller. The big ones have a lot more parties while the small dorms are usually the ones requested by book worms like me so we can have some peace and quiet. First years are usually assigned to A through D but you can request out and you'll usually be out in a week or two at most."

Hinata smiled, "W-wow, thank you."

Konan nodded, "No problem. You guys are here early, that's good, you'll get in your dorm before the rest show up. It's always a hassle, even in the small dorms."

Shikamaru hopped out of the car, "That was the plan"

Konan nodded, "I better get going. Good luck."

Sakura waved politely as she walked away back to the library. Ino took the map and laid it out on Tenten's hood, "Okay, me, Sakura, Neji, Naruto and Kiba are in dorm A. Which is on the West side. Tenten, Shika and Lee are in B, which is on the South Side. And Hinata, you're the only one in C, which is East. Gaara will be in D when he gets his butt here. North by the way."

Sakura nodded, "We should pack all of Hinata's things in Kiba's truck and Kiba can drive her over to dormitory C and D. We'll stay here with the rest of our stuff."

Hinata nodded, "A-alright, I'll get my things." Hinata grabbed her bags from Tenten's car, Neji and Kiba put the heavy trunks into the bed.

Kiba and Hinata got in the truck and backed out, Hinata waved shyly out the window while Ino shouted, "We'll meet you at the fountain up front at noon to go to lunch! 'Kay?"

Hinata nodded and sat back as Kiba drove east to Hinata's dorm.

Sakura pulled her bags out of the back of Ino's car and the others out of Neji's truck. The others got theirs together and they waited for Kiba, who had the biggest truck bed to head back after helping Hinata.

Ino sat on Tenten's hood next to Sakura and Tenten, "That Konan chick was kinda sketchy."

Tenten shrugged, "I thought she was cool."

Ino huffed, "I mean she just seemed off"

Sakura laughed, "You think anyone is off if they have any facial piercings besides on their ears."

Ino put her hands up in defeat, "Forget it! Forget I even brought it up."

Naruto hung up his phone and sat down on his trunk, "This might be a while guys, Kiba just called saying he's helping Hinata bring her bags in."

Ino raised an eyebrow, "Why should that take so long?"

Naruto sighed, "She has eight bags and she's on the 12th floor."

"Oh." Ino said.

Ino looked around the group, "Where is Lee?"

Neji nodded to his truck, "He was getting jumpy so we pulled over and knocked him out. He should be on the floor of my truck.

Sakura shook her head, "Neji!"

Tenten laughed along with the guys, "That shut him up I bet!"

After 20 minutes of their favorite game, Never Have I Ever, Kiba pulled up in his truck.

Tenten stood up, "Since only three of us are in dorm B, we should go to ours next."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Or you just wanted to get yours done first."

Tenten held up her hands, "Can't blame me."

Neji nodded, "She's right, five of us are in dorm A, it'd be easier to get B done first."

Once everyone agreed, Neji walked over to his truck and hit the horn three times, waking up Lee with a start. "We're going to your dorm, get up."

They packed Tenten, Shikamaru and Lee's bags into the beds of both trucks and left for Dormitory B with Tenten on their heels in her own car, leaving the rest behind. With Sakura, Ino and Naruto left behind they just continued to play Never Have I Ever until Neji and Kiba came back with empty truck beds.

Piling the rest of their stuff, Naruto rode with Kiba and Ino and Sakura drove in the bug to the west dorm, Dormitory A.

Ino had the boys helping her carry her twelve bags up to the third floor and once they came back, they helped Sakura up to the fifth floor with her nine bags of luggage.

As they carried the last bags into her room, Sakura quickly thanked them and ushered them out. As she closed the door, Sakura let out a excited squeal as she flung herself onto the mattress in the corner of the room. Inhaling deeply, she took in the smell of her new dorm which had a mild stench of cleaning products.

Deciding to procrastinate just a little bit, Sakura put away one small bag of clothes, set up her bed so she could take a quick nap later and left the rest for later.

Looking into the mirror Sakura examined her outfit; a black Nirvana T-shirt with denim short-shorts with lots of pretty blue and white lace. With a dark blue flower headband circling around her short pink locks, silver hoops earrings, lots of bracelets and rings and black ankle boots. Smiling she picked up her phone and walked out the door, locking the door behind her.

Walking down the stairs of the old building Sakura noticed some other students starting to come in. Looking out a window as she descended the stairs, Sakura noticed the parking lot on this side of the campus filling up.

Rushing out of the building without hitting anyone, Sakura met the sunlight with a bright smile. Deciding to explore the campus a bit Sakura walked off onto the soft grass of the courtyard.

Wondering around, admiring the beautiful old buildings of the campus Sakura didn't notice until the blue haired beauty, Konan, called her name.

Sakura turned her head to the voice, smiling she walked over to Konan where she sat on the grass with a group of her friends.

"You found your dorm I hope?"

Sakura nodded and huffed, "Yeah, it's just as big as you said."

Konan sighed, "Just wait till the beginning of the year parties start. Anyway, guys let me introduce Sakura to you." Gesturing to each boy as she named them, "Sasori, he's an art student here. Hidan, he doesn't go here but he likes to hang around the campus. Itachi, he graduated last year but he's visiting right now, he has an apartment . Kisame is a oceanography student. Kakuzu is just a wanderer like Hidan. Tobi is an idiot, that's all you need to know. And Deidara here is working towards being a bomb/explosive specialist and has a major in art… somehow."

Sakura noted that they were all extremely gorgeous, even Kakuzu, who had this really dark skin, sketchy eyes and a lot of stiches. Hidan had these pink eyes and silver shining hair, and Itachi was flat out handsome in a very casual looking suit. Sasori was such a cutie with short choppy red hair and Deidara… he was just sexy, with his long blonde hair and his rocker style with his stunning blue eyes that were lined with a tid bit of eyeliner.

And they all wore black nail polish. Sakura decided this was a gang or group thing they did.

Everyone waved politely as they were named off.

Hidan hopped up and wrapped his arm around Sakura's shoulder, "Hey sweet cheeks, what's a little girl like you doing in a big scary college like this?"

Sakura laughed, "I have more business here than you, I'm an actual student here."

Everyone laughed as Hidan simply smoothed his silver hair back. Deidara patted the grass, "Come sit, girly, un."

_Wow_. Sakura hadn't assumed much about Deidara at first, obviously an artistic troubled soul, but when he spoke, he blew her kind away. Such a deep voice for such a pretty face.

Sakura smiled as she sat down, "So you guys have been going here for a while?"

Konan nodded, "I'm in my last year with Kisame, and Deidara and Sasori are Sophomores."

"What are you majoring in, un?" Deidara asked.

Sakura smiled, just a little proud of herself, "I'm a pre-med student."

They all ooo'ed, "Smart-y pants then?" Kisame asked.

"You bet it" Sakura laughed.

"What city are you from" Itachi asked, finally speaking up.

"Oh, I'm from the village of Konoha. It's pretty small, I don't think you've heard of-"

"I'm from Konoha. So is my brother, Sasuke. You might know him, he's a freshmen this year also."

Sakura looked shocked at the name, she squirmed a little uncomfortable, "Yeah, I know him. Well, I did. He moved to Oto a few years back. So your Sasuke's brother…"

Konan changed the subject, feeling a sober essence from Sakura, "So where are your friends you were with this morning"

Sakura shrugged, "Unpacking probably. Or sleeping."

"Were you all from Konoha?" Konan asked.

"Yep, Naruto, Sasuke and I used to be best friends. Sasuke used to be so obsessed with you Itachi." Sakura laughed lightly.

Itachi took a sip of his Starbucks, "Still is." He sighed.

"So are we going to Pain's party on Saturday?" Deidara cut in.

"Who's Pain?" Sakura asked, leaned back to lean on her elbows.

"Konan's boyfriend." Sasori said, nodding towards Konan.

She shrugged, "I'm going. I don't know about you guys. I need to call Pain by tomorrow though so he can get enough food."

"I'm working." Itachi said flatly.

Hidan grinned, "I'm up for a party, as long as there are bitches."

Sasori shrugged, "Nothing better to do."

"Same" Kakuzu said. Was that the first time he'd spoken?

Tobi hopped up, jumping giddily, "Tobi wants to go to Pain-sama's party! Please!"

Kisame chuckled, "I'll be there for sure."

Deidara grinned, "Rad, so we're all going except for the prude. What about you Sakura?"

Sakura shot up, sitting straight up from her former relaxed position, "Oh no, I don't want to barge in on a party I'm not invited to."

"It's alright, Pain doesn't care. It's not like you're a total stranger. You're with us so it's fine." Konan said reassuringly.

Sakura smiled softly, "Alright then." She declared, "I'll be there!"

Deidara did a small fist pump, "Kickin'."

Sakura smiled to herself, as the group discussed the party and the people who were going to be there. She felt happy with them. She also felt tingles when she looked at them, so perfectly punkish. Konan was a blue goddess, Itachi was the handsome brother of her past love, Sasori was quiet and thoughtful and looked so child-like but so serious, Hidan was bursting with energy- and curse words- with wild looks and a wild laugh, Deidara was a firecracker of energy and spunk and laughter, Kisame was calm and cool with an edge, Kakuzu scared her in a way that made her want to know him more and Tobi was a silly goofball that seemed a bit too cheerful. Plus he had an eye-patch. Can't trust people with eye-batches.

They seemed like the friends she'd always dreamed of.

But wait… Sakura already had magnificent friends. Friends she'd grown up with, and understood and trusted since forever. But with these people, she felt something that she lacked in most of her current friendships… _chemistry._

And she wasn't thinking that just because Hidan's wide open light denim shirt was drawing her attention to his totally killer abs.

Totally false.

As Sakura zoned back into the conversation, Deidara and Sasori were having a heated debate about art, with everyone looked utterly exhausted from their agreement that was said at least twice a day.

Hidan nodded impatiently, "Is that right. Well, this was fun and all but are we going to go get some food? I'm starving."

Kisame rolled his eyes, "It's only 10 AM."

Hidan huffed angrily, "I didn't have breakfast, it costs too much." He said, glaring daggers at Kakuzu, who just shrugged, "Bastard is so damn selfish."

Tobi got excited again, "Tobi is hungry also!"

Deidara stood up, wiping the grass and any dirt off his 8 once ripped jeans, "Let's go Sound Café. I think you'll like it Sakura."

"Oh, I don't know. My friends and I are supposed to go to lunch at noon…" Sakura said.

Deidara chuckled, "We're your friends now too, un!" he said and he took her hand in his and dragged her down to the small parking area next to the courtyard, his rough palm holding onto her cool smooth one.

Itachi went up to his Bentley, "Climb in. If I see one scratch, one dent, all of you will be erased from this planet. Clear?"

"Crystal Itachi-sama!" Tobi cheered hopping in. Everyone climbed in, getting completely squished except for Konan, who out of everyone's complete and utter respect, got the front seat. Sakura squirmed between Sasori and Deidara.

Sakura looked up to Sasori who was on her left, "So what kind of art do you make."

"Wooden sculptures." He said flatly.

"So Sakura, you're the newbie, what tape should we listen to?" Konan headed Sakura a pile of cassette tapes and CD's."

"Ummm, I could go for some Bon Jovi right now." She said, handing Konan the CD then the rest of the pile.

Kisame grinned a sharp toothed scary grin, "Excellent choice."

Sliding the CD in, Konan turned on the CD mode, and turned it up as Track 1 started.

As they jammed out in Itachi's convertible Bentley, Sakura couldn't help but feel complete euphoria, with these people she'd only met just 30 minutes ago. But it didn't matter. There was an instant connection.

Konan grinned and sang along with them, which surprised Sakura due to Konan's serious aura, "~_We gotta hold on to what we got, it doesn't make a difference if we make it or not~" _

Kisame grinned shouting along with Sasori, "_~We got each other, and that's a lot for lo-ove…"_

"_~We'll give it a shot!"_ They all chanted.

Standing up slightly, Deidara leaned backward on the back on the car, his torn up converse shoes on the seat, and his thighs, back and arms stretched across the back, "~_Oooooooooooooooooooooooooh, We're half way there!"_

"~_Aah-AAH!"_

"_~Living on a Prayer!" _Deidara sang into the wind blowing his hair back.

Sakura flipped over, knees on the seat, looking back at him, reaching her hand out to him, "_~Take my hand, we'll make it I swear!"_

Deidara leaned forward, sitting basically on the back of the moving Bentley, grabbing hold of Sakura's hand, "_~Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!" _

And he shot forward, locking lips with Sakura.

Sakura had to admit, this was a bit sketchy. She didn't know what came over her, but she didn't stop.

Oh, hell no.

She kissed him back.

And the magic set in, oh the movie magic of it all. Perfection. Tangling her free hand in his blonde hair, he wrapped an arm around her waist. Sakura felt the rush of the wind blow her short locks of pink forward to tickle his face while his long blonde hair blew backwards.

When they parted for air, it was the chorus again. Sakura just looked into his eyes that bore into hers. They were grinning like mad men but just continued to sing along into each other's faces.

As the song drew it's end, Sakura laughed, pulling Deidara back into the car. As they both plopped down, the others didn't seem to care about their dangerous little musical make-out. Sasori wasn't singing anymore, just looking grumpily out the window, tapping his leg along with the beat. Itachi mouthed the words as he turned a street, looking more focused then he should. And Hidan still sang, but in a more passionate, anger-type of way. And Konan was looking into the rear view mirror straight into Sakura's eyes, a serious, sad and pitiful look sculpted on her face.

They drove a few more minutes before Itachi parked in front of this building, with a large sign hanging in front titled, Sound Café. The group climbed out and Itachi locked the car up as they walked inside, going down a few steps.

The place wasn't too crowded, some college kids sitting at tables talking and laughing and two older looking women in the corner. There was a small unlighted stage in the back corner and the cashier/place your order area took up the right ride of the wall where an entry way lead to the kitchen.

Kisame lead the way to "their table" which was on the far side of the smallish place, hidden from the majority of the rest of the restaurant and had 'Akatsuki' carved onto it with little drawings of clouds.

They sat back up and Hidan plopped into the chair next to Sakura. Itachi waved a hand over and a waiter walked over, "Hello. I'm Tayuya, what the hell can I get for you?" said the red-headed girl.

"Fucking nice to see you too, bitch." Hidan snapped back in her face.

Itachi threw her his card, "Coffee for everyone. The usuals?"

Everyone nodded along.

"What do you what, slut?" Tayuya asked, nodded to Sakura with her writing pad out.

Sakura huffed, "I fucking love hot chocolate. Whore." She said sweetly, looking up innocently to Tayuya.

Tayuya, instead of getting mad about the name, smirked happily, "Alright, it'll be right up." And she started to walk away, stopping and looking over her shoulder, "I like you."

Sasori shivered, "Yuck."

Deidara nodded, "Heaps creep."

Sakura looked at them, eyebrow raised, "What?"

Konan looked a bit embarrassed, "Tayuya is bi. She kind of has a thing for Akatsuki type girls. She must think you're in the gang."

Sakura nodded, "Oh… that isn't too bad."

Konan groaned and slapped her palm to her forehead, as the guys snickered, " Tayuya tried asking Konan to prom, but when she said that she was going with her _boyfriend_ Pain, Tayuya spent the next three weeks stalking Pain and her friends had made a plan to "get rid" of him."

Kisame laughed deeply, "She can be cool, but when she's crushing, she's scary."

So after two and a half hours of making fun of each other and filling Sakura in on sketchy things about each person (like how Kisame's mum was technically a shark) and how Itachi had a deep brotherly love for Sasuke.

When Sakura's phone rang.

Sakura sighed and answered, "Hello, Ino-"

"_WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?! WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR HAL AN HOUR?! WHY DIDN'T YOU ANWSER MY TEXTS?! OR HINATA'S?! OR NARUTO'S?! WHERE THE FUCKING HELL ARE YOU?!"_

Sakura paled, "I…uh… was with friends."

Deidara, Hidan and Kisame grinned toothily and gave her the thumbs up."

"_With friends?... With FRIENDS? WHAT ABOUT US?!"_

Before Sakura could answer, there was some noise on the other line and Tenten took the phone.

"_Sakura, don't listen to Ino. We were just worried about you."_

"I'm sorry! I lost track of time, I'll be there in five!" Sakura said, stuffing her things into her bag.

And Naruto yelled in the background, "_You better!"_

Sakura sighed and hung up the phone, "Itachi, if you don't mind, could you drive me back to the campus?"

Standing up Itachi nodded, "Of course. Come with me, I'll be back soon guys."

They walked out of the restaurant and climbed into Itachi's Bentley. Racing back to the campus, Sakura couldn't help but be upset at leaving them and going back to her other friends.

Sakura climbed out of the car and thanked Itachi again, nodding Itachi smirked, "Good luck" And raced off again, blowing Sakura's hair just a bit.

Sakura ran over to the fountain where she found her friends.

Neji saw her first and smiled at her, nodding his head towards Ino who had supposedly smelled '_back stabbing biatch'_ in the air and whirled around to face Sakura.

Everyone looked a bit upset as Ino went on a rage fest and declared Sakura a '_two-timing friend'._

Sighing, Sakura tried to stay calm, "Look, I'm sorry. I lost track of time." She looked Ino straight in the eyes, "But they were worth being bitched at."

Ino growled, "I understand making new friends and all, but when they come before _us_, that's when I have a problem."

Hinata tried to place her hand on Ino's shoulder to calm her down but it was too late.

Sakura threw her hands up and yelled, "Screw it! I don't want to go to lunch with ass-wipes anyway!"

And she stormed off to her dorm room.

**A/N: That my lovies, was the first chapter of This Is the Time of Us. **

**So tell me what you think!**

**I like the idea of being in college far from home, and getting a huge amount of freedom and responsibility but still having classes and studying and such. It's always been extremely intriguing, don't you think?**

**So what will happen to Ino and Sakura's friendship? Or more importantly, Sakura's friendship with all her old friends? Will it last or crumble into dust? And what do you think of the Akatsuki's friendship with Sakura? And what the hell was up with Deidara?**

**Feel free to throw out ideas, this will be a long, and random, chapter fanfiction. **

**Love from Emma~**


	2. Only Certain Red-Heads Get Me Going

**A/N: Sooo, thank you all for my first comments on this story! Great feedback! Anyway, I got some telling me I wrote it very well, THANK YOU. Don't be too lazy to log in, please? ;)**

**But I did get a comment asking to switch the pairing to Sasori and Sakura. Thing is, it kind of is…. AKASAKU MY LOVIES! It's gonna be big ol' orgy of pairings(not really). DeiSaku WILL be the main one, but SasoSaku is like the close second! **

**BUT FOR YOU DEAR REVIEWER, THIS CHAPTER WILL BE LIKE SASOSAKU ON ACID! Just for you ;)**

**(I'd like to note that there will be NO character bashing, some characters WILL show their ugly side, but I love them all and they can all redeem themselves)**

**CHAPTER 2**

**Only Certain Red-Heads Get Me Going**

"Screw Ino. She can go suck sixty dicks like the whore I know she is. Bitch." Climbing up the stairs to her dorm, Sakura grumbled loudly to herself, her voice echoing and scaring a few nervous freshmen.

Sakura quickly opened her dorm, threw her phone across the room where it landed on the desk, kicked one of her bags out of her way and tumbled onto her bed. Arms crossed, Sakura stared up at the ceiling angrily. "That bitch. That bitchy little whore, she probably thought I was getting some or some shit. I'll crush her eyeballs with a sledgehammer, then slurp up the juice after."

…

"I should apologize." Sakura shot up from the bed and rushed over to her phone.

Sakura quickly scrolled and was about to call Ino when she heard it.

"Bi-polar much?"

Sakura whipped around, gripping onto the desk from behind she scanned the room and found a red-headed girl. She couldn't say the girl wasn't pretty, she was clad in a lavender purple ripped cotton baggy sweater with a tight black short skirt. She had black sequin flats and white nail polish. Her hair though... fire truck red with only one part of it was layered to the extreme and she had light bangs that were brushed to the sides.

"Who are you?" Sakura asked, her hand sliding back to the scissors that were on the desk.

"Karin. Your dorm mate" That made Sakura relax a bit.

Sakura smiled a bit and stepped toward Karin, "I'm Sakura. Sorry about my tantrum…"

Karin shrugged and stood up from her lounging position, "What the hell happened, you were pretty steamed there."

Sakura laughed nervously, "My best friend is a stubborn bitch and won't listen to me?"

Karin shook Sakura's hand, "Sounds legit."

They spent the next few hours unpacking, with an awkward silence, Sakura decided to put in a CD, hoping Karin had a similar taste in music. Placing the disk in her boom-box that now stayed on the desk, Sakura turned it to the 3rd track and turned up the volume a bit.

Sakura smiled as her mix CD played her favorite rock classics.

Sakura looked over at Karin who stood at her bed with a crinkled nose. Sakura frowned, "What's the matter."

"You listen to this crap?" Karin asked, a look of disbelief, "I thought the whole rock tee was just for the look, but…."

Sakura looked through her CD's, "Would you prefer metal? Alternative? Maybe J-pop? You look like you might be a K-pop fan."

Karin scoffed, crossing her arms, "How about _normal _music." Strutting over to the boom-box, Karin threw out Sakura's mix and put in a CD of her own.

And Sakura's ears bleed.

How could someone listen to such heartless, cold, cookie-cutter, _auto-tuned_ music? Really now.

Sakura could handle Ino's pop music, in fact she really liked some of Ino's favorite music and bought it for her iPod! But _this_. It belongs on Disney Channel. No, it was like Disney Channel and the Jonas Brothers tried to have a baby.

And then she goes on to insult good music. Good _old_ music. This was a new low.

How was Sakura going to deal with this torture? Maybe she should have just stayed with Ino and everyone…

And then Karin went to set up her side of the dorm, putting up boy band posters up and a collage of photos.

Sakura, trying to be nice to her new dorm-mate went over to Karin's wall, "What is this collage of? I think I recognize this guy…?"

Karin looked over her shoulder, "You might. Sasuke Uchiha, my soul mate and future boyfriend."

Sakura's jaw dropped but Karin didn't see and went back to unpacking and setting up. Sakura walked closer to the wall and looked closely at the pictures. Sasuke looked gorgeous just like when they were little. Sakura was breathless, Itachi had said he was going here… but….

Sakura carefully touched one of the photographs. He wasn't smiling, just like in the others, but he looked happy, in that strange Sasuke way. The same way he did when they were little. The same way that only Naruto and Sakura recognized.

She smiled blissfully, her eyes scanning the different photos. Most of them Sasuke obviously had no idea they were being taken, and that made them better. So much more candid. It hurt Sakura a little.

"How do you know Sasuke?" Sakura asked Karin, coming back to earth.

Karin didn't look up from her work, "He transferred to my junior high and we went to high school together. In Oto."

Sakura nodded, understanding that when he left, we went with Professor Orchimaru, who founded Oto… it only made sense.

But it didn't.

Sakura was still hung up on Sasuke leaving them, her and Naruto and Professor Kakashi and everyone in Konoha. He let them down.

Sakura turned away from the collage quickly, fighting the tears swelling in her eyes. Grabbing a light grey hoodie, Sakura went to the door, "I'm going for a walk before it gets too dark." Which wouldn't be for a while anyway, it got dark around 6:30 this time of year. She just needed to get out.

Karin shrugged, "Don't care."

Sakura rushed out into the hallway and down the stairwell.

Sakura opened the double doors to Dormitory A and felt the cooling rush of wind hit her face. Sakura fast walked as quickly as she could away from the dorm… from Karin… from that damn collage…

Sakura's vision was unclear and her body was running and she didn't know where she was going or how her legs were moving or if her eyes were open or closed or if this was even reality.

Sakura finally slowed down and blinked rapidly, looking around she found herself in the deserted courtyard with the autumn sun nearing the horizon.

She plopped herself on a stone bench and shoved her hands into the pockets of her sweater and breathed heavily.

What was she doing?

This wasn't high school anymore, that was all over. She was in university, she had to start acting mature! But how could she if her roommate had photos of Sasuke Uchiha everywhere, listened to crappy music, her best friends hated her and Sasuke was on campus? Stupid girl.

"Hey. What are you doing here?" Sakura threw herself around to see Sasori standing over her shoulder.

"Oh. Hi Sasori." Sakura breathed, relieved. She looked up at him and smiled softly, patting the stone bench for him to sit.

Sasori complied and sat next to her, "You didn't answer me."

Sakura looked confused and then remembered, "Oh. I just needed to get away from my roommate."

Sasori just looked over t hills past the campus, the autumn sunshine lighting them up, "How bad could it be."

Sakura nervously laughed, gripping the stone bench and leaning forward, "Pretty bad, I'd have to say."

Sasori looked down at her pink locks, gathering a bit of courage he voiced his hope,"You could always move in with Akatsuki…"

Sakura looked up from the grass she was staring at, "Really? You would let me move in with you?"

Sasori nodded slowly, "We stay in Dorm K, it's abandoned so no one gets assigned to it."

Sakura sat up excitedly, "All of you are there?"

Sasori nodded, "It's me, Hidan, Konan, Kakuzu, Deidara, Tobi and Kisame. Itachi has an apartment though. "

Sakura grinned, "You'd really let me?!"

Sasori rolled his eyes, "_Yes._ Konan is with us, if you're worried about being with a bunch of guys."

Sakura looked confused, "Why would I be worried about being with you guys?"

Sasori chuckled, "Nothing."

They sat there with a nice silence. Sakura smiled and leaned her head on Sasori's shoulder, "You're really nice Sasori…"

Sasori chuckled at that, "And you're really weird Sakura."

Sakura laughed, "Not as weird as you guys."

"Maybe you're _just_ as weird as us."

Sakura looked skeptical, "_Maybe._"

Then he stood up abruptly, "Let's get your things."

"What?"

Sasori smiled lightly, "Your moving in with us."

Sakura looked a little shocked, "Right now?"

Sasori sighed, "Yes."

"Shouldn't we ask everyone else?"

Sasori shrugged, "They'd all be fine with it." Grabbing her hand Sasori lead Sakura out of the courtyard, "You didn't unpack everything, right?"

Sakura looked thoughtful, "I set up my bed and unpacked my clothes and books. There are still a few bags left."

Sasori nodded, "Which dorm?"

"I'm in A. Fifth floor."

Sasori cursed, "That'll take us awhile."

"Why?"

"Dorm A is on the other side of the campus from K. Plus getting those bags from the fifth floor will be a pain in the ass."

Sakura nodded, "Oh. Well, I can stay the night and pack up, and we can bring the bags tomorrow morning. And the others can help!"

Sasori didn't look happy, "Let's get it done tonight."

Sakura huffed, "But wouldn't it be easier to have everyone help?"

Sasori growled, "I'm doing this now. I don't need the others."

Sakura laughed and shrugged her shoulders, "Alright. Alright. Calm down bro."

When they reached Dormitory A, Sasori let go of Sakura's hand reluntedly and she led the way up five flights of stairs and down the hallway to her room. Taking out her key Sakura opened the door to find Karin had left, and didn't leave a note.

Sakura sighed relieved, "She's gone. I guess she went out with friends."

Sasori nodded towards the boy band posters on the far wall, smirking, "Not yours I hope?"

Sakura laughed sarcastically, "Oh yes, of course. They can all gang rape me as much as they like!"

Sasori chuckled, "Of course."

Sakura pointed to her side of the room, "I'll get my clothes together, could you please pack up my bed? It goes in that bag."

Sasori nodded and started taking apart the bed, which was a bubblegum pink with white pillows. He found this hilarious.

It didn't take Sakura long to pack and zip up the bags of clothes, so she got all her books and things together while Sasori finished folding the sheets.

Sakura sighed and sat on a stack of three luggage bags while Sasori sat on the bare bed, "Now we just have to get it down five floors…"

Sasori nodded, not at all looking forward to it. Then he smiled devilishly, "Or…"

Sakura stood outside the dorm and watched as Sasori threw the final trunk out of her window. As it hit the ground Sakura checked on it. Still intact.

Sakura laughed and gave Sasori the thumbs up sign when he stuck his head out the window. Nodding he rushed down the stairs and came out the door.

Sakura sighed happily, "That saved us a lot of time!"

Sasori nodded, "Now, how are we gonna get nine bags across campus…?"

Sakura groaned, it was now 7:00 and dark. Light poles light up the school and they sat there with stacks of bags, unsure of how they were going to do this.

Sakura turned to Sasori, "Do you have a car?"

Sasori shook his head, "Never needed one, Itachi drove us everywhere."

Sakura nodded, "I guess we'll just have to carry them."

Sasori agreed, but plopped down on the grass, and Sakura sat with him. They sat there quietly, a comfortable silence though. Not at all like the awkwardness Sakura had with Karin that afternoon.

She was looking up at the moon and was about to mention that it was almost a full moon when he laced his fingers with hers.

Sakura looked at Sasori, surprised. That's when Sasori leaned forward and gave her a light kiss. He leaned back after a second, thinking he made a mistake and was about to stand up when Sakura shot forward to quickly re-captured his lips, just as carefully as he did. Sweet and passionate.

Sasori traced his fingers on her jaw before sliding them up into her hair. And Sakura lightly placed a hand on his chest, slightly holding onto his black hoodie.

When they broke apart Sakura was much more breathless than she should have been and looked away shyly. Sakura looked up again into Sasori's warm brown eyes.

Sasori smirked and stood up, offering her his hand, "We should start moving. They'll wonder what happened"

They started dragging the nine trunks across campus when the heard the screech of rubber on pavement, Sasori turned around and perked up.

Sakura squinted "Who is that? Do you know him?"

He just chuckled, "Zetsu."

Sakura watched as a golf court approached and came to a stop in front of them, it was a big guy (Not as tall as Kisame though) who was half really tan and half really pale with green hair. He grinned down at them, "Hey Sasori!"

Sasori smirked, "What are you doing back?"

Zetsu climbed out, careful not to hit his head, "Eh, I got bored of being on the road. So I hitch hiked over here and jacked this golf cart."

"Perfect." Sasori said as he picked up two bags and threw them onto the cart.

Zetsu raised an eyebrow but turned to Sakura, "And who is your little friend Sasori?"

"Sakura. She goes here, we're moving her into the Akatsuki dorm." Sasori said, continuing to load the back.

Sakura smiled, "Hey." Then she grabbed two bags and put them with the rest.

"So is she a new member or something?" Zetsu asked smiling down at Sakura.

Sakura shrugged with Sasori, "We'll see what Pain says. He's having a party this Saturday by the way."

Zetsu grinned, "Cool."

They all climbed into the golf cart and drove the rest of the way. Sakura was squished between the two, she wasn't too sure what she thought about Zetsu. But he didn't question her so she wasn't going to question him.

Zetsu leaned down to the duffle bag by his feet, speeding through the campus on a golf cart with one hand, and threw a beer over to Sasori before grabbing himself one.

Zetsu looked down at Sakura, "Want one?"

Sakura shook her head, "Nah…"

Sasori elbowed her, "Prude." Before taking another chug.

Sakura laughed, roughly pushing Sasori. She _hoped_ he'd fall out and land on his ass on the pavement but he was more muscular than she thought. Like seriously, he looked pretty skinny, but she guessed that past the baggy jeans and sweatshirt he might be a little ripped. _Maybe._

They finally reached Dormitory K, which looked more like a big house really. There were a lot of windows though. It was past the Performing Arts center and the pool which was near the back entrance. The blinds were all closed shut, the grass looked _crisp_ and_ charred_, the little wood box garden had barb wire around it and it looked like they had _bear _traps by a few of the windows.

As they walked up to the door, Zetsu went over to the box garden and smiled, "You guys kept it just the same."

Sasori opened the door and called out to everyone, "I'm back! And I brought Sakura!"

Hidan, Kisame and Deidara were watching TV on the couches, Konan was in the kitchen helping Tobi make some noodles, and Kakuzu must have been upstairs.

Sasori dragged in the first two bags while Hidan, Kisame and Deidara stood up and walked over to them. Sakura brought in a few more, and put them next to the others.

Konan looked over, "Sakura's moving in?"

Sasori grunted yes.

Zetsu burst in, "Guess who's back!"

Tobi jumped up, "Zetsu-kun!" and then he glomped the dude.

Zetsu laughed, "Hey Tobi."

And then, "**Off you little ass-hole.**"

Sakura watched Zetsu warily, _"Did he just…?"_

Tobi didn't seem affected and neither did anyone else so Sakura decided to ignore it.

Sakura smiled nervously at everyone, "It's okay that I move in, right?"

Hidan smirked and looped an arm around Sakura's shoulders, "It's alright with me as long as you're in my bed."

Sakura laughed, "Ew." And went to bite his arm.

Hidan jerked his arm away but smiled evilly, "So you like it like that, eh?"

Sakura laughed loudly, "Pervert!"

Hidan shrugged and just smirked.

Deidara nodded then ruffled her hair, "Totally cool with me."

"Yeah! I love little pinky." Kisame laughed as he poked Sakura's stomach.

Swatting his hand away, Sakura couldn't help but laugh, "If I'm little pinky, your my big blue boy!"

Kisame laughed with his deep sexy voice, "I like that, pinky."

Sakura elbowed his chest, which was at eye-level, and bare, "Blue boy…"

After everyone had agreed to their new dorm mate and Sakura had gotten her things in the new room she would share with them all and was tucked in and went off to sleep, Konan called a secret meeting of Akatsuki members.

They met in the living room which was conjoined with the kitchen and hallway that led to Konan's own bedroom and bathroom and the staircase which lead to everyone else's big shared bedroom and bathroom. They had the lights off and the red and black wax candles glowing. Konan sat in her chair, as leader of the dorm she had her own room, bathroom, chair and made the rules and all the calls.

Konan stood up as everyone sat down, "I have called this meeting to discuss Sakura." Konan gestured to Tobi who then held up a paper with a picture they printed from his iPhone of Sakura. She was sitting in the café that day slurping a hot chocolate, her eyes were shut tight and she looked a little pained as she drank the little really hot coco. "As we all know, we have decided we like her and all that. But we need to have rules and conditions and have a vote and then decide some other things from there."

Everyone nodded, not daring interrupt Konan.

Konan went on, "Rule number one. Sakura will sleep in her own bed, by herself, unless she wants one of you to sleep with her. Got that? We don't need any campus police checking up on us for sexual assault."

Some of them groaned, some of them shrugged but they all nodded and agreed.

"Rule number two. This is more of a temporary rule. Since Sakura must have her own bed, one of you will be kicked out and sleep on the couch every night. This will go on till we can find two more beds for Sakura and Zetsu. You can take turns for whose out here."

They all nodded, no arguments there.

Konan then looked really serious, "Now I know some of you may have some feelings already for her-which is stupid and boyish and I thought you all were mature and not controlled by your dicks but whatever- but you will not, under ANY circumstances fight over her. So that makes rule number three. No fighting or drama over Sakura."

They agreed, thinking it'd be easy enough.

Konan nodded to herself, "Now we need to vote on whether or not we want Sakura to join Akatsuki. This has to be approved by every member. If that works, she'll be put through initiation and then Pain will approve or deny her. Got it? We vote three times to make sure. Everyone gets a chance to say something if they want in favor of her or not. Okay let's vote."

Konan nodded towards Tobi, her 'Little helper', "All in favor of letting Sakura join Akatsuki." Everyone raised their hands.

Tobi continued, "All not in favor."

All the hands went down.

Konan nodded and they did this again two more times. She was shocked, they hadn't even known her that long, but they all seemed to really like this Sakura girl and want her there. Then Konan realized, she had raised her hand too.

Konan shook herself, "Okay. Now we have to decide on a proper initiation."

Hidan shot a hand up and Konan called on him, "Let's dress her up in something sexy and show her off to the whole damn school!"

Deidara shook his head, "That's lame and could be sexual assault."

They all groaned, when Kisame grinned, "We could take we to the beach and have her surf covered in petroleum jelly."

They continued with ideas like that. They decided that Sakura would 1.)Dress up as Pikachu for the whole day 2.) Get a tramp stamp of 'Akatsuki's Bitch' for 5 months and then 3.) surf covered in petroleum jelly.

Kisame was especially happy with the last one.

Konan had Tobi type out her an order and contract for Sakura. She signed it and had Tobi leave it on the kitchen table. "Meeting closed." Konan sighed and ran her fingers threw her bangs , happy to get that over with. She headed over to her door, before turning around, "Do whatever you want, but I don't want to hear any noise after midnight, got it?" Everyone nodded and wished her nice dreams as she disappeared into her room.

**xXxXxXx**

Sakura laid in the bed that they gave her to sleep in, it had black sheets and covers but white pillows like the other beds. The room was huge and fit the six beds with a lot of extra room. It looked like the this floor was supposed to be three separate rooms but they knocked down the walls to make one huge room. Which was cool, they had three beds on opposite walls, two closets, a large dresser and each bed had its own little side table. In the middle of the room they had a gymnastics mat which she figured they used for karate or kung fu or whatever. Brazilian jutsu or some shit. They had a hell of a lot of posters, mainly of bands, fighters or animes they liked.

Oh and one more thing. It was a catastrophic mess.

She hadn't had time to unpack much except for a few books that she stacked at the end of the bed she was staying in. Looking at the side table Sakura guessed she was in Tobi's bed, since she found a few eyepatches, sugar sticks, a photo of a puppy with an eye patch and a pirate picture book.

The lights were off but they did have two night lights on both sides of the room, one blue and one green that lit up the room nicely.

Sakura leaned down and shuffled threw her school bag which also was her purse. Grabbing her phone Sakura found an ass-load of texts and missed calls. Huffing angrily she scrolled threw the old missed calls.

_Ino. Ino. Ino. Tenten. Ino. Naruto. Hinata. Ino. Ino. Ino. Ino. Neji. Ino. Ino. Hinata. Hinata. Ino. Shikamaru. Ino. Lee. Ino. Tenten. Tenten. Ino. Naruto. Ino. Ino. Neji. Ino. Hinata. Ino. Ino._

And then a similar list of names in the last few hours. Not even wanting to check her voicemails, Sakura went to the 25 missed texts, some of them Ino but mostly the others. Ino was always more of a caller then a texter.

'_Where R U? –Tenten' _

'_SAKURA, ANSWER US! -Naruto_

'_R U coming? –Hinata'_

'_Sakura, everyone is worried about you. Where are you?! –Neji'_

'_Come on, we're late for lunch –Shikamaru'_

'_SAKURA! GOD DAMNIT ANSWER YOUR PHONE! –Naruto'_

Things like that.

Thinking she didn't have to really answer them, Sakura just ignored them. Then a few minutes later she got a text from Hinata.

'_Sakura, I know ur mad at Ino, but we all are really worried about you. Naruto and I went to your dorm just now and all your things were gone. Where are you? Don't leave, please, we'll come for you. –Hinata'_

And then within the same minute she got a text from Naruto.

'_I get it, ur rlly mad at Ino. But what the hell are you doing?! Hinata and I were just at your room, and your roommate said you'd left before she got back. WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?! –Naruto'_

Sakura sighed, as upset as she was, she couldn't ignore or worry her friends. Especially not Naruto her best friend and sweet little Hinata. She responded to both telling them she was fine and she just changed rooms and they didn't have to worry. She got replies that were quite similar, telling her how worried they were. But Naruto demanded Sakura meet up with them and Hinata had just wished her a good night's rest.

Sakura told Hinata good night and continued to fight with Naruto for a few minutes before he called her. Declining Sakura turned over in the warmness of Tobi's bed and ignored any other vibrating she heard from underneath the pillow where she stashed her phone.

Looking at the clock on Tobi's side table, Sakura didn't see a time, she saw how long her friends were paranoid, scared and worried because of her.

11 and a half hours.

And then she drifted off to sleep.

**A/N: DID YOU ENJOY IT?! DID YOU LAUGH OR SMILE OR DO ANYTHING?! TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT AND LEAVE ME SOME SUGGESTIONS! LEAVE ME YOUR THOUGHTS! LEAVE ME IDEAS OR COMMENTS OR ANY FEELS YOU MAY HAVE!**

**Did you like Karin?**

**Is Sakura freaking out over Sasuke understandable?**

**What about Sasori? **

**Zetsu's intro good or…?**

**Thoughts on Akatsuki taking Sakura in so quickly?**

**What about Sakura's friends reactions?**

**I love all of you, best wishes until the next chapter! Oxox~**

**-Emma**


	3. Tattoos and Apple Bee's

**A/N: Do I suck at writing? I think I've lost my magic. Something needs to change…**

**Anyway, I'm sick, congested and probably delirious because I thought I was in my best friend's bed so I rolled over so I didn't hit my head on her wall, but I wasn't at her house so I fell off my bunk bed. Like really… I didn't die though, because there was a chair and a butt load of pillow pets protecting me. Plus I landed on my butt. **

***Thank you layer of fat for protecting my future smoking hot ass***

**Let's see where this leads us. Probably to something majorly effed up.**

**Chapter Three**

**Tattoos and AppleBee's**

After an entire morning of wondering aimlessly around campus dressed as Pikachu, Sakura was officially pissed at all of them. The cheeky assholes.

But the plan didn't work to well, considering it was the Friday morning before classes started the next week, no one had really been out there to embarrass her. Just the empty campus.

They woke her up really early only to shove her into the giant costume that they got from the Performing Arts Center, telling her it was initiation time. Which succeeded to scare the living shit out of her.

They took her out to breakfast, which would have been nice if she could've actually sat down. The seven jerk-wads took up the entire booth and forced her to sit at their feet. Konan came with them for that, but ditched to go with her mysterious boyfriend to help him clean his messed up house for the party that night, which was once used for an illegal sweatshop.

But before she left Konan told them she would be back for the third part.

Which freaked Sakura out. '_How many things can they possibly make me do?!'_

When the clock struck noon, they let Sakura out of the costume and stashed it in the back for future mischief.

But then Itachi showed up with his Bentley, swinging the keys in front of her face, they all piled into the sweet ass ride, and that's when Kisame blindfolded her.

"Haha, very funny blue boy." Sakura said sarcastically, as she reached up to rip the cloth from her head Hidan took hold of her hands.

"Nope." Sakura could practically hear the smirk on his face.

So they rode for a while as they listened to some music, but all Sakura could think about was how she was wasting her Friday doing this silly initiation thing.

But she had to admit, Sakura _really_ liked these guys. She drank up their presence and just being with them excited her. So she went along with it, since she did get to be all snuggled up against Kisame and Hidan.

They finally arrived after a fifteen minute drive, they stood her right in front of the store and finally Tobi took the blindfold off.

….

"You want me to get a _tattoo?_" Sakura asked lamely, "Fine, I'll get something small though so jokes on you."

Hidan laughed evilly and took out of piece of paper, "Nope, we got a plan." Showing her Kakuzu's sketch of '_Akatsuki's Bitch'_ which was blunt but really slutty looking.

Sakura laughed, "Hell no! You can't make me!"

Sasori groaned, "It's not like it's permanent!"

"Still!"

Deidara huffed, "Come on, you wanna be in Akatsuki right?"

Sakura looked pretty skeptical, she really didn't know these guys. Or what their little gang was all about. All she knew was she was digging everything about them and liked them a hell of a lot more than her other friends.

Kisame held her waist from behind, "If you do, I'll sleep in your bed tonight…"

Sakura took a minute to think, cuddling with a blue shark boy? Plus she could just wear long shirts for the next few months. And it was temporary!

What could go wrong?

Sakura nodded and took Tobi's hand as the two skipped into the tattoo parlor.

Kakuzu introduced the tattoo artist, who seemed to be his friend and they got right onto it. With her green tube top pulled up below her boobs , Sakura sat backwards on a chair. She looked more and more nervous with every second, the guy was preparing his stuff and making the design. Kakuzu wiped her back down with a wipe.

The guy walked over and patted her shoulder, "You ready?"

Sakura reached out to Sasori and Itachi, who were sitting on the bench in front of her. They grabbed hold of her hands and she nodded.

As the pain increased, Sakura squeezed her eyes shut and her grip on the boys' hands tightened.

After a while the guy stopped for a second, thinking it was over Sakura let out a sigh of relief, "Oh God…"

"Jashin...!" Hidan quickly put in.

All the guys gave him a glare.

Sakura was about to stand up from the chair when Itachi squeezed her hand and leaned forward to her ear, "You're not done yet, Sakura… He still needs to finish the colors."

Sakura looked into Itachi's eyes and moaned, "Noooooo. Itachi, I- FUCK YOU!" She yelled as the dude started again.

Sasori took hold of her hand with both of his now and smiled, "You can do it Sakura."

She nodded and continued with the tattoo.

After it was done Hidan, Kisame, Deidara and Tobi did a standing wave thing, Sasori smiled for Sakura and Itachi lightly kissed her hand. Which was all really nice. Kakuzu just put the paper over the new tattoo, which still stinged a bit. Sakura's skin being very pearly and not too tan, the red on her back really showed through the thin paper.

They all waltzed out cheering Sakura on, half of them obviously thinking she wouldn't go through with it.

The Akatsuki had gone through many initiations, through many possible candidates, everyone wanting to give the person a chance. They never got as far as being accepted the majority of the time. The Akatsuki, after all was a gang, but more importantly, a friendship. Though the candidates usually ended up being trusted allies, they never made it to Akatsuki.

But this girl. She was pulling the heartstrings of all the members. In one way or another, they all liked her, some more than others. She had a real chance of joining, which scared some of them because the last new member was initiated five years ago, Tobi.

They all had just clicked.

Riding down the highway, they all rode rocking out to one of Deidara's Pink Floyd disks. Kakuzu had stayed back to hang with his buddies from the tattoo parlor. They were jamming out, as Itachi swerved to the fourth lane. But then they pulled up to a stop light, since it was foggy that morning, Itachi put the top back on the convertible, so Sakura didn't notice Ino's purple bug parked right next to them.

Itachi had her sit up front with him since he was treating her to lunch for braving the tattoo. The back windows were down and Tobi was sticking his head out. In attempt to not totally screw her hair (which had pretty 4th grader Dollar Store pins in it) up completely, Sakura kept the front windows up. So she couldn't hear a screaming Ino through the bullet-proof (?) window or the blasting music.

Sakura was jamming along to the music with Itachi next to her, tapping his hands on the wheel to the beat. It really wasn't her fault her couldn't hear Ino.

"YOU BITCH. YOU LITTLE BITCH. LOOK AT ME, I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME! ARE THESE YOUR LITTLE ASS-FUCKER FRIENDS?! IF YOU SERIOUSLY THINK YOUR GOING TO REPLACE ME WITH THAT BLONDE PUNK YOU HAVE ANOTHER MOTHERFUCKING THING COMING UP TO FUCK UP YOUR ASS! YOU HEAR ME BILLBOARD BROW!?" Ino rolled down her little window and leaned all the way out, throwing fists into the air and screaming so loudly, the traffic of cars behind her could hear.

Hinata, Naruto, Kiba and Tenten were all in the car, Hinata in the passenger's seat trying to calm Ino down and the others yelling at her to get back in the car.

Sakura, being a completely oblivious rosette **(A/N: what Sakura uses as the technical term for her hair. 'Rose', meaning pink, and 'ette', being the ending to 'Brunette'. Hey, did you know 'brun' in French means 'brunette'. Bet you didn't.)** didn't even notice, in fact she just kept doing her little dance in the passenger seat while Ino looked ready to sink Titanic with her bare hands.

"YOU LITTLE BITCH….!" Ino yelled even louder, when Kiba and Naruto finally teamed up to pull Ino back in the car. "You little bitch boys, what the hell do you think you're doing?!"

Tenten threw her thumb backwards, motioning to the cars behind her, "All those people totally heard everything you said! Every freaking word!" Tenten stressed the word freaking.

Ino huffed, "Not my fault the slut can't hear me!" Hinata slyly rolled Ino's window up while hugging her, to try and restrain her from screaming more, "Really, she is in a car with like ten guys! I bet you she was banging them all last night when she and all her stuff disappeared. The little prostitute!" She said in a shrill voice and the light turned green and Itachi raced off and Ino screamed at the dashboard to them.

Hinata breathed in nervously as Ino continued driving, "P-p-please Ino-chan…. Don't t-talk about Sakura-c-chan like way. You n-need to calm d-down a bit. Sakura can h-have other f-friends."

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, have you been overdosing on bitch-pills lately? Seriously, what did she do? Hang out with other friends and end up late for our lunch date?! Pipe the fuck down!"

That quieted Ino down and she just glared at the road and muttered under her breath, "You don't understand…."

In attempt Hinata shyly turned up the radio and smiled as the music seemed to undo Godzilla Ino and her tense shoulders relaxed a bit.

**xXxXxXx**

Itachi parked in the lot next to Apple Bee's (Tobi had convinced Sakura…) and they all piled out.

Sakura stood up and sketched when Kisame gripped her by the waist from behind, "Hey blue boy." Sakura smiled back at him.

Kisame smirked, "Don't scream." He said before basically throwing her up to sit on his right shoulder and Zetsu's left shoulder.

Squealing Sakura gripped their hair, "Guys! I'm like 6 feet in the sky now!" Sakura laughed loudly and they gripped her legs so she wouldn't fall, " I'm king of the world!" Sakura yelled throwing her head back.

They paraded around the parking lot five times because Sakura commanded it, and when they dropped her so they could go inside, she still wasn't ready.

"Being tall is fun. You all looked like ants! Especially you Sasori! Little red ant!" laughing her head off at her own joke Sakura stumbled into Itachi who was waiting at the podium for them, since he didn't want to want walk around a parking lot when it was still pretty foggy and cold.

"Itachi! How wonderful! You beautiful man!" Sakura hugged him awkwardly and Itachi patted her head.

"I know I'm wonderful. Let go now Sakura." Itachi said after he wrapped an arm around her.

Once they were sat down in the back by the angry guy with a uni-brow that Sakura mercilessly pointed out, they sat there happily snuggled into a four person booth with the eight of them.

Sakura giggled at Deidara, Hidan and Sasori's faces who weren't at all happy to be with Tobi. Sasori, the least annoyed since he got the window seat and Tobi was in between Deidara and Hidan who was right next to him with Deidara hanging off the edge.

Sakura though, was cozied up between Itachi, who was surprisingly warm with his loose long sleeve and her blue boy, Kisame.

Sakura stood up, throwing off their balance quite a bit to announce she was going to the bathroom and dropped down to the ground, crawling under the table and stumbling on their feet. Deidara kicked her side playfully and Hidan flipped her off.

Finally getting out Sakura grumbled and ran off to the girl's room.

They sat there and when the dudette came to get their order, Itachi told her what Sakura wanted and they told her what they wanted and she left quickly, seeing Hidan's sadistic looking gaze directed at her chest.

And they sat there.

Oh, and Tobi colored. _How to Train your Dragon_ Deidara observed, when he was forced to play the Tic-Tac-Toe game with Tobi.

Hidan banged his head on the table, "She's been gone for fucking twenty minutes."

Itachi sighed, "It's been eight minutes Hidan."

Hidan sat up straight and pointed accusingly at Itachi, "Don't fucking correct me Uchiha bitch boy."

Itachi sighed and put his hands up in mock defeat.

Kisame grumbled, pretty bored himself, "Someone go in after her."

Hidan poked Deidara in the side, "Fucking Deidara obviously, he can pass as a chick."

Deidara grabbed his finger and twisted it backwards a bit, "If you didn't notice, I'm in the middle of an intense battle of Tic-Tac-Toe. So if you want to take my place I'd be happy to-"

Sasori sighed loudly and stood up on the booth before standing on the table and promptly walked off and jumped to the floor barely having to bend his knees, "I'll go, you're both being kooks."

Kisame ooh-ed with his best high pitch voice, "Look whose using surf-lingo, Mister Valley."

Sasori rolled his eyes at Kisame's hate of the valley and walked off to the girl's room.

Without even batting an eye Sasori waltzed in the women's restroom and located Sakura's stall by looked under the door and seeing her slightly torn up vans with leaves and flowers and shit drawn on with magic marker.

"Sakura?" Sasori called.

Sakura looked up from her masterpiece, "Yep?"

"What are you doing, it's been eight minutes." Sasori stared at her stall door, stuffed his hands in his red hoodie pockets and ignored the stares and gasps he got from old ladies and moms.

Sakura grinned and unlocked the door, swinging it open, "Check it out!"

Sasori grimaced at first, thinking she was on her period or something which would explain why it took her so long. But no, she had her grey leggings on with her green tube top and dark grey zip-up sweat shirt, sitting there with the bathroom spray. "Hi!"

Sasori looked skeptical, "What the hell are you doing Sakura?" He asked.

Sakura back upped and threw her hands out, directing Sasori to look at the stall wall, where she had a giant picture of Hidan's face.

"….Why…?"Sasori asked tiredly.

Sakura grinned, "Well I was about to leave when I spotted this baby", Sakura showed him the can of Coconut scented bathroom spray, "I love coconut, so I decided to spray it around but the nossle is broken so it lets out chunks instead of sprit-zy joy! So I thought, 'Hey! It's white! Like Hidan!' So yep."

Sasori glanced at the picture again, she outlined his face with an extra layer of the chunks and filled in his slicked back hair. She had his smirk, nose and eyes outlined well also and something pink from her bag to do his eyes.

"Lip-gloss." Sakura shrugged, somehow knowing what he was thinking.

"That's a hell of a lot of lip gloss Sakura." Sasori raised his eye brow at her.

Grabbing his hand, Sakura dragged him over to the pull-down changing table and split her bag out over it. A lady bug wallet, her cell phone, a few Eos chapstick eggs, a pencil eye-liner, a bag of orange slices, and a shit-ass-bitchin' ton of lip glosses.

"…."

"Goo hoarder." Sasori glared accusingly at her. (**A/N: Yes. I did steal this from Jenna Marbles. If you haven't heard of her or recognize the reference look up ****Things I Don't Understand About Girls**** on YouTube)**

Sakura laughed and shoved all her things into the bag and patted Sasori's back.

Sasori followed her out and they went to the back where the guys were already eating. Once she settled Sakura ate her chicken strips happily while Itachi, who was next to her ate his Oriental whatever salad, Kisame shared her chicken and Zetsu had a shit ton of ribs with sauce and shit.

Tobi had Mac and Cheese, which he kept getting stuck in Deidara's hair, who didn't order anything. Sasori had shrimp or something because Kisame was glaring at him. And Hidan was chowing down on the same thing as Zetsu.

That's when Deidara's drink came.

A Shirley fucking Temple.

Sakura almost died, "HOLY SHIT. HOLY SHOT. HOLY SHIT. IS THAT A SHIRLEY TEMPLE?!"

"…Yes…?" Deidara answered picking out his first cherry of two.

"HOLY DAVID TENNANT!" Sakura hopped up on the seat so her knees were on it but she could lean over the booth wall thing, "MISS! I want ten Shirley Temples! One after the other! Just keep 'em coming!"

The lady quickly nodded before rushing into the kitchen and came back in the next minute with the red pink drink of joy.

Kisame looked at Sakura wearily, "Ten Shirley Temples?"

Sakura grinned, "Time me!" Picking out the two cherries, Sakura made a little pile in one of Zetsu's cleaned out sauce containers which she whipped with a napkin. Then she took the cold glass to her mouth and chugged, having to pause a few times to breathe deeply through her nose.

Kisame grinned, "52 seconds." He announced checking his phone timer.

Sakura cursed and smirked when the next drink was placed in front of her.

Chugging three more, Sakura finally beat her personal best of 24 seconds.

The guys were all chanting and three tables near them and turned around to watch. They cheered when she downed the fourth one at 20.5 seconds.

Sakura did a little dance in her seat and things calmed down. Itachi had taken Tobi to the bathroom to puke from his two bowls of Mac and Cheese and the 7-up he had. Hidan demanded Sasori to show him the stall wall after he saw the redhead looking at the pictures he'd taken. Kisame and Zetsu went to check out the Aquarium which had a lot of fishies but also a lot of plants and kelp and shit. Leaving Sakura and Deidara sitting alone.

Deidara was watching her with an amused smile, he was half way through his first down, nibbling on his second cherry, "Impressive."

Sakura beamed, "You think?"

Deidara smiled and tilted his head a bit to the side, "Yep. I'm calling you 'Cherry' for now on."

Sakura laughed and leaned forward sipping from his straw, "I think I like that."

Deidara laughed along, "So what was the thing that Hidan just had to see in the Betty's bathroom?"

Sakura wrinkled her nose, "Betty? What are you, Australian?!"

"Long Beach."

Sakura nodded knowingly, "I made art."

Deidara's eyes widened, "Let me see!" Grabbing her wrist, Deidara raced over to the restrooms dragging Sakura behind."

He went up to Sasori who was leaning on the wall outside the stall which was wide open and showed Hidan with his jaw dropped.

"You like it?" Sakura asked giddily.

"Fucking Jashin… Fucking Jashin in a fucking waffle iron!" Hidan said, then whipped around, "You made my face with bathroom spray and lip gloss!"

Sakura shrugged, "It just came to me."

Deidara looked with a critical eye, combing his hair with his fingers while he thought, "The spray and gloss will fade, I guess, right?

Sakura nodded, "Most of the chunks of spray have already gone."

Deidara smiled, "I guess it could be considered art. Maybe."

Sakura beamed, "For real"

"Kindergarten grade A for sure."

"I'll take that."

When they all returned to their table after a compliant about the disruption Sakura drank the rest of her Shirley Temples and then ate all of the cherries she had gotten, giving Tobi two, leaving her with 18 cherries.

Itachi sighed, handing the waitress his golden card, "Well this was fun and all, but we have to get to the beach and finish part three of the initiation soon before it gets dark."

Kisame grinned, "I got some buddies on the dock getting the stuff ready as we speak."

"The stuff?" Sakura raised an eyebrow.

Hidan smirked, "We need to go get her a bikini before we go."

"Why do I need a bikini?"

Zetsu nodded, "And pick up Konan."

"Are you guys going to answer me?"

Deidara grinned, "Let's go then!"

"Where are we going?!" Sakura screeched, very upset.

Tobi smiled at her, "Part three!"

Kisame patted her back and they got up and walked out of AppleBee's, Itachi grabbing his card on the way out.

They piled in the Bentley and headed back to the campus, racing on the highway and flipping off familiar looking cars. Pulling up to Dormitory K, they all got out and headed inside, finding Konan snacking on pita chips.

"Have you guys watched this?" Konan asked, mouthful and pointing at the TV screen, "_American Horror Story_. It's really good."

Sakura gasped and ran over but was pulled back by her hair by the evil redhead Sasori.

"Part three of initiation."

"But... but, what about Tate!"

"Nope." Kisame grinned messing up her hair, "Go get a swim suit and get back down here!"

Grumbling Sakura angrily stomped her way up the stairs to the huge bedroom.

Opening one of her bags, she ruffled through it before finding the five bikinis she owned. Decided on the forest green halter stringed one with black polka dots, Sakura quickly replaced it with her underwear, changed into shorts and put some flip flops on but leaving on her green tube top and hoodie.

Rushing back down the stairs, Sakura found Tobi waiting at the front door for her while the others piled into Itachi's car.

They had all apparently had put on swim trunks as underwear that morning and Konan had a sleek black one-piece with elegant curly cuwls stitched into the design. That had stripped in the living room and simply left their clothes there.

Itachi drove a good half an hour on the highway before pulling off sharply to a little surf town where Kisame declared was a killer surf spot.

They drove up to the cliffs by the ocean, Sakura was getting paranoid. Did they want her to jump off?! But they just kept walking till Kisame lead them to a bunch of bushes where he revealed was the trail down the rocky sides of the cliffs to a cove.

Following them down, Sakura gulped, she wasn't too sure what they would make her do. Kisame, Deidara, Sasori, Hidan and Zetsu were carrying a few boards though. And Tobi was hauling his own little boogie board down the steep trail.

Finally making it to the sand, Kisame went over behind a bundle of palms and pushed with his might a tub of gunk.

Sakura looked nervous, "What's that, Kisame?"

He smirked meanly, "Well pinky, this here is some good old petroleum jelly."

Sakura wrinkled her nose, "And what am I supposed to do with it?"

Itachi grinned and leaned his hand on the tub's edge, "Catch a couple of waves."

Deidara snickered, star-fish slapping her back, "It's gonna be _gnarly."_

Sakura huffed, "Well, I didn't get this tattoo for nothing."

"Oh that reminds me, that us see this sucker." Sasori said peeling off the paper from the small of Sakura's back.

"Nice."

"Sweet!"

"Killer"

"Wow Saku-chan!"

"Balls of steel, girl!"

Sakura smiled, at each compliment, feeling the ego boosting up a bit.

Itachi patted the tattoo several times, "Hurt too much?"

Shaking her head Sakura grinned and spun around to face to boys, "What are we waiting for! Those waves ain't gonna ride themselves!"

So Sakura, being the balls of steel girl, hopped right into the rub of jelly. Slowly pulling herself out, not wanting to slip, and you know, die. And she grabbed the second board Kisame was carrying sand ran out there, tripping only slightly. After a few seconds Deidara, Sasori, Kisame and Hidan ran out, with Itachi walking calmly behind. Tobi strapped on the ankle bracelet and skipped, as well as he could with the ankle bracelet, never taking off his eye-patch. Like a true pirate.

Konan laid out a beach towel and put her black lace umbrella deep into the sand, nicely shading her spot, and sat down to calmly watch from afar. And Zetsu was too busy checking out and talking to the wild plant life around the gorgeous cove.

Sakura took several falls, hit herself a few times, and caught some air and 15 minutes later she still hadn't rode a wave out. True it'd be a few years since she's gone surfing, but she didn't think her skills were this rusty. Or maybe it was all in the petroleum jelly.

Finally, on a baby wave, Sakura finally didn't slide. She hung in there, and after 3 seconds opened her squinted eyes and cheered. The boys in the water cheered with her until Itachi suddenly looked serious and yelled, "LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!"

"What?!" Sakura yelled back, the other guys were screaming too and she couldn't understand their words.

That's when a gnarly wave came down on her and washed her under the water.

And BAM!

A huge rock under the water had hit Sakura's head, making her watery gaze go fuzzier and black.

**A/N: **_**OH NO!**_ **Such a cliffhanger, right? Not really. But a new character will be introduced next chapter, so…. Now it's a cliffhanger!**

**Not much to ask about this chapter, mostly weird stuff was going on. Not too much of a plot. But that ending, will lead us to more wacko stuff! WOOHOOO!**

**What will happen to Sakura? How hard did she hit her head, yikes!**

**Anything you'd like to say or see please leave me a review! Tell me what you thought of the chapter! **

**I love feedback, that's basically what this story is built off of. **

**Love and Herseys**

**-Emma**


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